Legendary Beatles Member George Harrison's Forgotten Song Is A New Year's Classic

By 1974, George Harrison had recorded countless number 1 albums, sold out tours across the globe, and he had enough of being in the biggest band in the world, The Beatles. The lead single from his fifth studio album, Dark Horse, “Ding Dong, Ding Dong,” has long divided fans, with half enjoying the New Year’s optimistic festivities and the other half disregarding it as a novelty piece. Where critics saw emptiness, Harrison shared a sentiment that had been dear to him for years. When we put the song in a wider context instead of jumping to easy, harsh conclusions, it becomes far more interesting and impactful than one might think on the surface.
Criticism of George Harrison’s Single Rang Out Loud

“Ding Dong, Ding Dong” was the lead single from George Harrison’s fifth solo studio album, Dark Horse, which was released in 1974. Harrison wrote the song to be a sing-along classic to enjoy festivities, and crucially to embrace the future by letting go of the past in welcoming the new year. Critics and fellow musicians alike have speculated that Harrison wanted to follow in the successful footsteps of the British glam rock Christmas tunes of 1973 and 1974 by Wizzard and Slade, but never quite met neither the chart space nor public respect that they did. 

Some critics, however, deem the plainness of “Ding Dong, Ding Dong” to be elementary and effortless. The BBC’s John Peel called the tune "repetitive and dull,” and Bob Woffingden of the New Musical Express rather sharply noted that “There’s nothing more disappointing than finding one's teenage heroes crumbling ineluctably into middle-aged mediocrity.” Perhaps the worst of all was Chris Irwin of Melody Maker labeling Harrison’s NYE track as a “Glorified nursery rhyme.” Harrison admitted that "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" was written quickly, but perhaps not as much as critics thought:

“It took me three minutes, except it took me four years of looking at the thing which was written on the wall at my home, ‘Ring out the old, ring in the new. Ring out the false, ring in the truth,’ before I realized it was a hit song. It makes me laugh because it’s so simple.”
George Harrison Was Fighting Fatigue, Freedom, and Expectations

Source: Fiona MacPherson-Amador/collider.com

Read More<<<